“No board action is required at this point,” Bettman said. “We’re anticipating, or hoping, the Glendale City Council passes the deal with the Renaissance Group. If the council doesn’t approve it… I don’t think the Coyotes will be playing there anymore.”

That proposal is the whopper of one the city presented this afternoon that sees the Renaissance Sports and Entertainment group get $15 million a year from the city to run Jobing.com Arena and a five-year out-clause to leave the city if the losses amount to $50 million or more in that time.

The agreement has the Coyotes staying at Jobing.com Arena for the next 15 years as the arena’s anchor tenant with Glendale paying RSE $15 million a year to run the arena. There’s a catch to all this, however.

According to Mike Sunnucks of the Phoenix Business Journal, RSE has a five-year out-clause to move the team if they pile up $50 million (or more) in losses over that time frame. The City of Glendale has a lot of “unresolved serious concerns” with the deal. Those are:

The city bears all the risk if the revenue projected by Renaissance is not realized.

The deal requires a $15 million management fee to Renaissance. The city has budgeted $6 million to pay for part of the $15 million arena management fee and Renaissance has projected shared revenue streams to help bridge the gap. Should those projections not be realized, and the city does not receive the projected revenues, then the city would need to make up that loss.

The proposed agreement is for 15 years and does not allow for the city to terminate the deal if revenue projections are not met as long as the Coyotes play in the arena.

The proposed contract can be terminated by Renaissance if their cumulative losses reach $50 million, and, in any event, after five years.

The plan is to have the proposal voted on on July 2. Should this deal not pass, the NHL could seek to move the team to Seattle immediately. Next Tuesday will be decision day one way or the other.

It wouldn’t be summer until we’ve had a buyer approved for the Phoenix Coyotes.

TSN’s Darren Dreger reports the NHL has confirmed they have an agreement with George Gosbee’s Renaissance Sports & Entertainment group to purchase the ownerless franchise.

Does that mean the now four-year old struggle to sell the formerly bankrupt franchise is at an end? No.

There are still many issues left to be figured out yet including a lease agreement for Jobing.com Arena with the City of Glendale. That part of the arrangement has been the major sticking point for previous buyers including Jerry Reinsdorf, Ice Edge Holdings, and Matthew Hulsizer. Greg Jamison had a deal worked out with the city only to fall short of coming up with the money to purchase the team.

The Glendale City Council will vote whether or not to offer a contract to Beacon Sports Capital Partners LLC worth $25,000 and another $400 an hour for them to advise the city on how to proceed in finding a new owner for the Coyotes. According to city documents the total cost of the contract is worth $100,000.

All told, if that kind of investment can unearth an owner and someone to operate the arena, it’s worth the money. If it fails, it’s just more money the city is throwing down a hole in hopes of keeping the team.

A group calling themselves “Back To Sanity” failed to get the 6,900 votes needed to put the lease agreement to a vote. In an odd twist of fate, one of the group’s founders, Ken Jones, cited a lack of money needed to pay professionals to go out and help gather signatures.

“As soon as we learned that money wasn’t going to be available to us, we realized our chances were going to be pretty slim,” said Jones, who estimated needing $16,000 to pay professional signature gatherers. “But we didn’t quit trying until the last day.”

With the possibility of a referendum out of the way, the only thing getting in the way of the team staying put for good is prospective owner Greg Jamison not completing the purchase of the team. According to the lease agreement, he has until January 31 to do just that.